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Dunning signs off as Antrim triumph By Larry Cooney
Scorelines sometimes lie. Sunday’s 10-point winning margin was a fib
of mammoth proportions as London fell at the first hurdle in the much-maligned
Tommy Murphy Cup to Antrim.
Noel Dunning, in his last game in charge of London, watched his players
put in a spirited display which on another day would have delivered the
right result.
Two first-half goals from Conor McGourty at Ruislip provided the perfect
platform for the visitors in their latest victory which was enough to
give them a half-time lead of 2-4 to 0-4.
Although playing against the wind in the opening half London could still
consider themselves a tad unlucky to be that much in arrears and had goalkeeper
Sean McGreevey not rescued his county with stunning saves from Dara Kinneavey
and Chris Donnellan early in the opening quarter then London would have
been closer to their rivals at the interval.
Ciaran Close opened the scoring with the first of his seven points after
five minutes and when McGourty rounded Ronan Walsh to left foot to the
net for the first of his three goals three minutes later it looked like
Antrim were on their way to another easy victory after their scoring fest
in Kilkenny last weekend.
However London’s midfield partnership of Declan Meehan and Eamon
Brennan were more than holding their own against McCann and McVeigh and
provided sufficient possession to the London attack to give the visitors’
defence plenty of anxious moments.
A Dara Kinneavey free for a foul on Francie Cleary eventually opened the
London account after 10 minutes. Although the exchanges were keenly contested
for much of the remainder of the half, McGourty’s second goal with
his right foot five minutes before the interval proved crucial.
However London refused to capitulate and amazingly within two minutes
of the restart they were within two points of Antrim.
A long ball into the parallelogram from Declan Meehan was knocked down
by Dara Kinneavey into the path of the Exiles’ goal machine Chris
Donnellan who left-footed to the net in the opening minute. From the kick-out
Eamon Brennan set-up Daniel Davey for a point to leave the score 2-4 to
1-5 in favour of Antrim.
However the Saffron men responded clinically with a point from Ciaran
Close but when Kevin Niblock failed to beat Brian McBrearty from a penalty
in the 45th minute after a foul on McVeigh, London were given a welcome
reprieve.
The match had now developed into an entertaining contest and although
Antrim still led by 2-8 to 1-7 with nine minutes remaining it was still
anybody’s game until McGourty completed his hat-trick to end London’s
resistance.
Four minutes previously London had been rocked by an injury to their talisman
Chris Donnellan after an unfortunate collision with teammate Dara Kinneavey.
Thereafter London simply had no answer to Antrim’s lethal inside
line of forwards who contributed all but 1-2 of their total.
London battled all the way to the final whistle and were rewarded with
late scores from Meehan, Philip Morgan and Conor Beirne but Antrim midfielder
Michael McCann, when moved forward, finally put the icing on the cake
of a fine Antrim performance with a late goal and two points. |
